


Aha!

by MissingNickname



Category: Pentatonix
Genre: Gen, avi has the best headcanons, lots of fun and joking around, music video shoot, the director doesn't get paid enough for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-11 22:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7072594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissingNickname/pseuds/MissingNickname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How to shoot a music video, PTX style.<br/>Inevitable silliness ensues and the poor director did not sign up for this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aha!

“Cut, cut!”, the camera guy once again called. Everybody dropped the last pretense of a serious face and joined Avi’s helpless giggling.  
“Jesus, that’s the tenth time!”  
“I know, I am so  _so_  sorry”, Avi managed in between gasping for breath. He tried his best to look as remorseful as he felt; he had ruined every single one of the past ten takes - but he simply couldn’t help it. Somehow, this entire situation was just too funny.  
“It’s okay, let’s just try again. And I’m begging you, try to look as intimidating as you can this time.”  
The rest of the team resumed their initial positions.  
_“Gods help us, they are aware that the entire video consists of scenes like this, right?”_ , the director quietly muttered. His assistant just shrugged and kind of grinned helplessly. Granted, it  _was_  funny in a certain way.  
  
The shooting of the new music video was progressing quite nicely. They had a great concept, a frankly amazing main location and a good number of talented and enthusiastic actors to play the two leading parts and some small extra roles they had come up with. Make-up and costumes, props, everything was just as they had imagined.  
There was just one tiny little thing they had miscalculated when writing the script. Because there apparently was no way their very own Avi Kaplan, clad in an especially artfully ripped shirt and painted with outrageous amounts of dirty make-up (even a little bit of fake blood), would manage to remain serious for more than two seconds in a row.  
  
8 p.m., make-up time. Kevin had been driving all of them here in a rented van, so even Scott and Mitch arrived on time.   
They quickly got into their costumes and waited for their turn with the make-up artist. Avi was first.   
“You look pretty, man!”, Kevin teased, when he came out of the makeshift make-up booth again.  
“Thank you”, Avi retorted gravely. “I, too, have always thought the zombie lumberjack look to suit me extremely well and am so happy to finally get the opportunity to achieve this dream of mi-” At this point, he was hit in the face with Mitch’s jacket and quickly hopped out of the firing line as Scott’s coat followed suit.  
Kirstie was next, everything was going smoothly. That was, until Avi saw Scott in full make-up for the first time.  
He stopped talking mid-sentence and, for the next minute or so, tried really, really hard, to keep a straight face and return to the topic of their conversation.   
He failed.   
Spectacularly.  
Next thing everybody knew he was shaking with held-back laughter, almost fell from his chair; then he  _did_  fall for real, and the rest of them were none the wiser until he had managed to catch his breath again a good time later.  
“What the hell?”, Scott demanded, sounding as bewildered as the rest of them felt. “Nothing, really, I - I just got this silly idea-”, Avi panted. “The costume just looks like Stone -”, more helpless giggling, “I mean, Scott, is a stoned boy band -… front man guy who ran away to- … to become a … gardener and was hit in the chest by his own rake so he died a- and his shirt is all bloody now!”  
And once more, their bass lost it for good and descended into the pit of endless, desperate giggling.  
A loud crashing noise came from the make up booth, followed by Mitch’s voice. “Jeez, thanks Avi, now my front is completely full of fake blood! I look like I killed the entire crew with my  _fingernails!_ ”  
Needless to say that that helped neither Avi nor the make up artist to regain their composure.  
Scott just stood there dumbfounded and slowly repeated “A stoned boy band front man guy.” “How high are you right now, Avi?”, was Kevin’s only contribution. It went unanswered.  
  
In summary, their preparation time had passed in an extraordinary good mood and Avi had even more silly comments ready for Mitch and Kevin when they got out of the booth. He really tried to hold himself back, though.  
Then, it was time to prepare for their first scene. The technicians had everything set up, the director was giving his last instructions and then - “Action!” - And Avi was lost.  
  
“Scott, stand behind Avi, for heaven’s sake! There is no way we can work like this!”  
This simple solution worked for a surprising five minutes.  
  
After two hours, their desperate director had filmed every scene that did not contain Avi (and banned him from the set for that time) and staggering thirty seconds of footage that included him  _and_  a straight face. That made one scene and a half out of, what? Twenty? The poor guy was ready for a break. The rest of them were, too, by the way.   
Some kind soul had decided to become their catering department and had got them all a late dinner.  
“Takeaway food! My favorite!” “You are aware that technically speaking you have  _no_  right to still be so gleeful? It’s your fault we are still stuck at scene two!” “I know, I am so sorry, but how,  _how_  does Scott manage to have that  _look_  on his face all the time? It gets me every single time, I don’t know what to do”, Avi confessed with comical helplessness. Kevin just snorted good-naturedly and hit his friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, man, we are having a good time, even the director, though he won’t admit!”  
  
The break proved to be fatal for any and all further progress in this night’s shoot. Their fate was sealed the moment Avi called after Mitch when he left the folding table everybody was sitting around with their dinner on their knees.  
“Whither goest Thou, oh beautiful murdering princess fairy boy?”  
He didn’t know what had possessed him to come up with that imagination but once it was there and the incredulous stares of the others hit him, he could for the life of him not get rid of it again. Mitch virtually fled, but alas, it was too late; Avi was overcome again by what others had dubbed “the dreaded Fit of Giggles” in the past two hours.  
  
When they tried to continue working after that, Avi would crack up every time he so much as glanced at Mitch. They put him to Mitch’s left and threatened to take away all his beanies should he dare to turn his head even by one degree. Again, it worked for approximately five minutes. Also, that meant five minutes without giggling, but it is very hard to look like a threatening, bloodthirsty zombie when fighting a grin, so a carefully blank face was the best they got out of Avi.  
The director wearily hid his face in his hands. “Guys, this is  _not_  working!”   
By now, the bass felt so guilty under all his laughter that he seriously offered them to just shoot the video without him. Of course, that offer was taken down by a wave of protest.  
“And if you just focus on me and try to forget the rest?”, Kevin suggested. Avi shook his head. “Sorry, pal, you look like a suburban dad who forgot his son’s annual late-night soccer tournament…” The rest wasn’t even surprised any longer. Kirstie had begun to secretly note down the roles Avi had given to each of them. “And before you ask, Kirstie looks like a prom queen who has been killed by the jealous vice queen and has now left her grave to take revenge…” (Kirstie continued writing) “…so you see, that vice queen indeed was full of _vice_ …” (He lost it once more).  
Then suddenly, Kirstie put away her notebook. “Guys! I’ve got an idea. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what will!”  
And she got on the tip of her toes in order to whisper something in Avi’s ear.  
  
They got the rest of the scenes shot in less than one hour and Avi looked positively  _terrifying._ His threatening, angry frown didn’t disappear even once. The director was so relieved he almost cried.  
When they’d packed everything and climbed into the van to drive home, Kevin got curious.  
“Kirstie, my loyalty belongs to you forever, but  _how on earth_  did you do this? What did you tell him?”  
At first she just grinned and refused to tell them.  
“Avi, come on, what did she say?” Avi still frowned. “This is  _not_  funny”, he decidedly declared.  
Now Scott and Mitch, too, became curious. “Please, Kirstie, share the secret to your magic with us!”  
“Fine!”, she announced at length.  
“I… I told him to imagine what had been done to these lovely plaid shirts in order to make our costumes. I told him to imagine these were  _his_  shirts.”  
  
Now the rest of the van lost it. Avi, on the other hand, looked seriously upset. “Who would  _do_  that kind of things to these poor shirts?”  
For the rest of the ride, he darkly stared out of the window.  
  
And it was proven once again: This guy never ceased to amaze them.  
  
  
_Much later Kevin confidentially told Scott just how much sugar he had smuggled into Avi’s coffee that day - and that he’d given him the special strong one, with doubled caffeine…_

**Author's Note:**

> This was fun to write. And really, have you looked at these poor plaid shirts?  
> The descriptions for their characters in the video just came to my mind after the thousandth time of watching it, so I thought, why not put it all together in a little oneshot? Usually, all my fic ideas related to the Aha! music video are pretty dark but this little plot bunny made me really happy :) And it took under two hours to write, I guess it was just meant to be. I hope you had as much fun with this one as I had.  
> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
